Multiple bodies recovered in the search for missing AirAsia plane

An Indonesian warship has recovered three bodies from the sea in the search for the AirAsia jet, Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency says.

Earlier in the day, a navy spokesman told the media a warship had retrieved more than 40 bodies but later retracted the statement saying it was a miscommunication by staff.

Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency chief Bambang Soelistyon said: "Today we evacuated three bodies and they are now in the warship Bung Tomo".

An Indonesian air force plane spotted items resembling an emergency slide, plane door and other objects in the search for missing AirAsia flight QZ8501 earlier in the day.

AirAsia has released a statement confirming the debris found is from flight QZ8501.

Indonesian president Joko Widodo said all available ships and helicopters would be deployed to the area where the debris was found.

He urged the families of the passengers and crew to "be strong as they faced this difficult moment".

Red and white debris spotted

Earlier, authorities gave media an update in which they showed a video of a body floating in the Java Sea.

"Based on the observation by search and rescue personnel, significant things have been found such as a passenger door and cargo door," Djoko Murjatmodjo, director general of air transportation at the transportation ministry, said.

"It's in the sea, 160 kilometres south-west of Pangkalan Bun," he said, referring to the town in Central Kalimantan on the island of Borneo.

He said aircraft searching for the missing aircraft had sighted "red and white-coloured" debris off the coast of Kalimantan.

Eleven divers were sent to the site and will search in an area of water about 25-30 metres deep.

There was no word on the possibility of any survivors and the plane has not been found, although Indonesian authorities have spotted a shadow under the water they believed was the aircraft.

Pictures of floating bodies were broadcast on television and relatives of the missing gathered at a crisis centre in Surabaya.

Several people collapsed in grief and were helped away, a Reuters reporter said.

"You have to be strong," the mayor of Surabaya, Tri Rismaharini, said as she comforted relatives.

"They are not ours, they belong to God."

A navy spokesman said a plane door, oxygen tanks and one body had been recovered and taken away by helicopter for tests.

Families offered 'care' in Surabaya

AirAsia chief executive Tony Fernandes said on Twitter he was rushing to Surabaya, the city from which the plane departed, to help.

"It is not really clear ... it could be the wall of the plane or the door of the plane," he said.

AirAsia flight QZ8501 disappeared on Sunday morning over the Java Sea with 162 people on board.

Australia, Malaysia and Singapore were part of the Indonesia-led search - comprising 15 ships and 32 aircraft - and on Tuesday the US military sent the USS Sampson, a guided missile destroyer, to the area.

The search focused on waters around the islands of Bangka and Belitung in the Java Sea, across from Kalimantan.